Tribunal’s Verdict: No Cause For Alarm-Wike

Activities in Government House continued as usual last week. The week had witnessed a protest by emergency health workers over the non-payment of about 10 months arrears of their salary.
On Tuesday, last week, following the protests by pro-Biafran groups in the state, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Media/Publicity, Opunabo Inko-Tariah, in a statement dissociated the state government from the development.
Sir Inko-Tariah submitted that Governor Wike believes in the indidivisbility of Nigeria and therefore condemned the action of members of the Movement for the Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra. The governor’s spokesman warned that the government would not tolerate such demonstrations aimed at dividing the country,which he said was capable of stimulating chaos in the state. While dissociating himself and the state from the protest, Governor Wike warned that appropriate legal machinery would be used to check such actions.
On the same Tuesday, while reacting to comments by former House of Representatives member representing Eleme, Tai and Oyigbo Federal Consituency, Hon. Barry Mpigi, the governor’s spokesman, Mr. Opunabo Inko-Tariah said Mpigi’s cliam that security was deteriorating in the state was borne-out of bitterness, while reminding the ex-lawmaker of the problems created by former Governor Chibuike Amaechi’s administration for failing to pay workers salaries and the closure of courts for over eight months.
On the protesting health workers, Inko-Tariah assured them that the state government would look into their plight with a view to paying their arrears soon.
On Wednesday, the State Deputy Governor, Dr. Ipalibo Harry-Banigo, represented by her Senior Special Adviser on Administration, Barrister Gilbert Nria, attended the official opening of the OCCION Micro-finance Bank in Port Harcourt.
The deputy governor commended the efforts of the bank, urging the financial instution to be vehicles of empowerment, as she called on women to use facilities offered by the bank to lift themselves out of poverty.
On Thursday, a statement from the Rivers State Sustainable Development Agency (RSSDA) conveyed the assurances of Rivers State Governor, Barrister Nyesom Wike, to 19 students from the state studying in the United Kingdom of government’s readiness to sustain their scholarship. The 19 students were billed to return to the state last week due to failure to meet the deadline for the payment of their school fees and upkeep allowances. The students were to return to Nigeria briefly while the authorities sort out with their schools over their welfare. They are expected to continue their studies next year.
On Saturday, shortly after the verdict of the Rivers State Elections  Petition Tribunal in Abuja, Governor Wike and other top government officials returned to the state. The governor addressed a mummoth crowd at the airport on arrival, saying there was no cause for alarm.
The governor said  PDP would appeal the judgement and assured Rivers citizens that, “what I can say is that the tribunal has given its own verdict, but we know that by the special grace of God, that is not the verdict of God”.